Going public to fight germs Firm using crowd-sourcing to raise capital for expansion

fosters.com

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Posted Mar. 24, 2013 at 3:15 AM

Posted Mar. 24, 2013 at 3:15 AM

By JEREMIAH TURNER

jturner@fosters.com

DOVER – A small manufacturer of chemical-free disinfection devices hopes to fund its expansion by offering air sanitation units to homeowners on an internet crowd-funding site.

Healthy Environment Innovations has been gaining acceptance for its unique method of killing harmful microorganisms, such as drug-resistant bacteria plaguing hospitals, using far-UV light. The firm owned and run by brothers Ed and John Neister has created lamps that emit the light wavelength and can be used in hand-held wands, air ducts and numerous other ways to sanitize without chemicals.

For several years they have perfected the lamp manufacturning process at their facility on Locust Street in Dover. HEI can produce a limited number of lamps now and has installed them in hospitals and a food plant on an experimental basis. A large food equipment manufacturer recently began offering HEI technology in its filling machines and that combined with other pending initiatives will require larger numbers of lamps -- and the capital to produce them.

HEI has turned to the Internet crowd-funding website indiegoggo.com to raise $1 million in the next several months.

“There are major companies in all sorts of industries interested once we can ramp production to 2,000 lamps a month,” said John Neister, HEI executive vice president.

“They understand the technology and it’s better than anything else out there but we have to show we can produce lamps for them.”

The Indiegogo site is a way for HEI to raise capital by enlisting the public’s help. It also allows the firm to offer air-cleansing devices for homeowners and businesses at reduced prices in exchange for funding. Detailed explanations about the firm and its technology are available on the indiegog website.

A home that has an existing air duct system for heating or cooling can buy an HEI air-cleaning unit for $729. Two units are $1,279.

Once installed, the HEI Far-UV GermBuster air unit emits wavelengths that kill bacteria and viruses in air passing through it. This is ideal for keeping a home free of illness-causing airborne microorganisms that can be especially harmful to people who are ill already or have allergies.

The Neisters point out the cost of treating a serious illness caused by airborne pathogens is far more than the cost of one of their units.

The indiegogo funding campaign will end mid-May. The goal is to sell 1,500 units.

People who support HEI’s technology but don’t need an air unit also can contribute smaller amounts to the campaign.

As of last week almost $9,000 has been raised by the effort.

Ultraviolet light has been used to sanitize surfaces for many years by altering the DNA of harmful microorganisms and hindering their ability to reproduce. What makes the HEI technology unique is its use of a specific far-UV wavelength that breaks the protein bonds in DNA, killing microorganisms that cause the flu, staph infections, pneumonia and other ailments.

The company cites tests showing it to be far more effective at reducing bacteria and viruses then standard chemical or UV methods.

Fogg sells a range of devices around the world for filling and capping food containers.

Sanitizing and sterilizing containers to ensure food safety and longer shelf life without chemicals is achieved by various methods.

Fogg has been using standard ultraviolet cleansing methods in some of its machinery and at first was skeptical of HEI’s claims. But after testing the firm has embraced HEI’s method.

“We were skeptical until we went through validation testing and found it to be extremely effective ... in some cases up to 10 times more,” said Fogg.

In addition to offering it in capping and filling applications, Fogg hopes to also start using HEI far-UV to clean the surfaces of food products such as vegetables, nuts and fruit passing through his machines.

The challenge will be marketing the new technology, said Fogg. The potential market is huge.

Repeated cases of mass viral infections on cruise ships, large-scale food-borne illnesses and most recently the discovery of new aggressive antibiotic-resistant microorganisms sickening hospital patients emphasize the need for new disinfection technology.

Ed Neister, HEI’s founder and president, has started other successful firms in the X-ray and power plant emissions industries. He envisioned an alternative to chemical disinfection of hands and wounds when he first discovered the far-UV technology, which he has patented.

The difficulty of getting FDA approval for its use on people has slowed that goal. The huge market for HEI’s technology in the food industry has taken the firm in another direction.

But testing continues in medical facilities, where chemicals continue to be the standard method of sanitation for hands, equipment and wounds. HEI one day hopes it also can have its GermBuster devices in operating rooms and outside every patients’ room and doctor’s office.